I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for supporting communication on multiple carriers.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.
A wireless network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). A UE may communicate with a base station via the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the base station.
A wireless network may support operation on multiple carriers on the downlink and/or uplink. A carrier may refer to a range of frequencies used for communication and may be associated with certain characteristics. A carrier may also be referred to as a channel, a frequency channel, etc. A UE may operate on a carrier or a set of carriers on each link for communication with a base station. The base station may send control information and data on one or more carriers on the downlink to the UE. The UE may send control information and data on one or more carriers on the uplink to the base station. It may be desirable to efficiently support operation on multiple carriers on the downlink and/or uplink.